Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-09-03


once In awed tones Of the awfulness OF Nasal
manners and customs, and OF the fate that
they had TO expect II those bloodthirsty saw
ages succeeded in getting over the stone wall.
Immediately after we had settled upon the
| outline Of our plan OF action as suggested by
| Umslopogaas, Mr. Mackenzie sent for four
sharp boys Of from ~ 10 Is years Of nge, and
| dispatched then 10 various points whence
they could keep an outlook upon the Masai
camp, with orders TO report from time to
time what was going on. Other lads, and
even women, were stationed at intervals
along the wall, in order to guard against tho
possibility Of surprise.
After this tho twenty mon who formed his
whole available fighting force were sum
moned by our host into the square formed by
the house, and there, standing by the bole Of
the great confer, he earnestly addressed
them and our four Askari.
"Afen,n said Mr.. Mackenzie, after he had
| put all the circumstances of the case fully
and clearly before them, and explained TO
them the proposed plan Of our forlorn hope
"men, for years / have been good friend to
| you, protecting you, teaching you, guarding
| you and yours from harm, and ye have
prospered with me. Ye have seen my child
the Waterlily, as yo call her--grow year
| by year, from tenderest infancy to tender
| childhood, and from childhood on toward
maidenhood She has been yonr children's
! playmate, she has helped - tend you when
sick, and We have loved her."
ave have,n said deep voice, "and VIC viii
die to save herr
81 thank you from my heart--1 thank you.
Sure am that now, in this hour Of darkest
trouble, now that her young life is like to be
cut Off by cruel and savage men-who Of a
truth know not what they do'--ye viii strive
your best to save her, and TO save me and her
mother from broken hearts. Think, too, Of
your own wives and children. II she dies,
her death win be followed by an attack upon
us here, and at the best, oven If VIC hold GU.
own, your houses and gardens will DO do
stroyed and your goois and cattle swept
away. / am, as ye we'll know, man Of
peace Never in all these years have lifted
my hand to shed mans blood; but now | say
strike, strike, in the name of God, who babe
us protect our lives and homes. Swear TO
me-" he went on, with added fervor-"swear
to me that whilea man of you remains alive
ye will strive your uttermost with me and
with these brave bite men to save the Child
|
"Say no more, my father" said the same
deep voice, that belonged to q stalwart elder
of the mission; @we swear it. May we and
ours die the death Of dogs. and our bones be
thrown 20 tho jackals and the kites, IL VIC
break the oathl 1t is fearful thing to do,
my father, so few to strike at so many, yet
will we do it or die in tho doing. WeswearI'
"Ay, thus say we all, chiiued in the others.
"Thus say we all, !" said l.
at is well, went ON Mr. Mackenzie. aye
are true men and not broken reeds to lean
ON. And nov we will begin our preparations
in good earnest"
The men who were to form each little
party were carefully selected, and still more
carefully and infinitely instructed as to
what was to DO done. After much con-
sideration it was agreed that the ten rnen led
by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the
camp, were not to carry firearms; that is,
with tho exception of Good himself, who had
revolver as well as short sword--the
Nasal "sime" which l had taken from the
body of our poor servant who was murdered
In the canoe. We feared that il they had fire.
arms the result of three cross fires carried on
at once would be that some Of our own people
would be shot; besides it appeared to all Of
us that tho work they had to do would
best DO carried out with cold steel-es-
peciaily to Umslopogaas, who was, indeed,
great advocate of cold steel. We had with
us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides
half dozen Martins. armed myself with
onS of the repeaters--my own; an excellent
weapon for this kind of work, where great
rapidity of fire Is desirable, and fitted with
ordinary flap sights, instead of the usual
cumbersome sliding mechanism which they
generally have Mr. Mackenzie took another,
and the two remaining ones were given to
two of his men, who understood the use OF
them and were noted shots. The Martins and
some rifles Of Mr.. Mackenzie's were served
out, together with plentiful supply of am
munition, to the other natives who were to
form the two parties whose duty it was to be to
open fire from separate sides Of the kraal on
the sleeping Nasal, and who were fortunately
all mors or less accustomed to the use Of O
gun.
AS fer Umslopogaas, wa know how he was
armed--with an ak. 1t may be remembered
that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest Of the
Asllari wero to hold the thorn stopped en-
trance TO the kraal against tho anticipated
rush Of men striving to escape. OF course,
for such purpose as this guns werc useless.
} Therefore Sir Henry and tho Aslzari pro-
ceeded to arm themselves in like fashion. II
so happened that Mr.. Mackenzie had in his
! little store q selection of tho very best steel
English made hammer backed ak heads Sir
Henry selected one Of these, weighing about
two and half pounds and very broad in the
blade, and the Askari took another size
smaller. After Umslopogaas had put ar
extra edge OH these two ak heads, we fixed
them to three feet six helves, Of which Mr.
} Mackenzie fortunately had some in stock
made of light but exceedingly tough native
: wood, something like English ash, only more
springy. When two suitable helves had beer
selected with great care, and the end of the
haft notched to prevent the hand from slip
| ping, the ak heads were fixed on them al
firmly as possible, and the weapons immersed
in bucket of water for half an hour. The
result Of this was to swell the wood in the
, socket in such fashion that nothing short Of
I burning would get it out again. When thi
. important matter had been attended to by
, Umslopogaas, went into my room and pro
! ceeded to open a little tin lined deal case
i which had not been undone since we lef
D England, and which contained-what do yol